After doing a quick survey of Hurricanes fans, it's pretty clear that the number one concern for the team this off-season is improving the defense, and rightfully so because the Hurricanes blue-line had a ton of issues. They were one of the worst teams in the NHL at preventing shots on goal during 5v5 play, had an atrocious penalty kill and constantly gave up odd-man rushes and scoring chances on almost a nightly basis. To make things worse, their defense corps was constantly banged up throughout the year and they ended up going through 12 defensemen over 48 games. The Hurricanes came into this season with a defense that could be fine if they all stayed healthy and played to their full potential. Unfortunately, Murphy's Law was in full effect last season and just about everything awry.

So, how do the Hurricanes go about fixing their defense? Personally, I think it relates both to the team's system and their personnel since Kirk Muller runs an umtempo system where slower, stay-at-home defensemen would be less effective than they would be in a more conservative system, but I think most would agree that the Canes blue-line corps could use some shoring up. The only true "shutdown" defenseman they have is Tim Gleason and he is surrounded by guys who are either more known for their offensive skillset or are guys who would be third-pairing defensemen on contending teams. That definitely needs to change in the next few years if the Canes are going to get back to the playoffs. 

Before we go about discussing how to "fix" the Canes defense, we're going to take a look at the odds and ends of their defense corps from the past year. Observing how Muller used each player and how they performed in their minutes will give us a better idea of where everyone stands and what areas needs to be worked on specifically. It should also give us a clue of which players stand out in the defense corps and which ones need to go.

I'll be breaking down this in a few different areas. First, I'll show how Muller divvied up the ice time among his blue-liners throughout the year to see who he favored and if there were any changes over time. After that, I'll show which defensemen constantly got the tough assignments and how that changed throughout the season and then finally, we will look at how each player performed in those situations. It will a way to provide context to the numbers that I have been reviewing for most of the season and give us a better idea of the state of this defense corps.

So who is the star of the Hurricanes defense and who are the ones dragging things down? We'll find out after the jump.

We've gone over the East, so now it's time to shift our focus out to the Western Conference, where many of their games are played while you are sleeping. The West does have plenty of teams that are worth staying up late for, though and insomniacs are going to be treated to some excellent playoff action in the upcoming action with the first round featuring some very interesting matchups. Last year, everyone got to see the Kings pull off an incredible run as an eight-seed to win the Stanley Cup and they are in a good position to make another run this post-season with the strong team they have assembled. They do have a tough first round match-up, though and the West features a lot of very good teams that could stand in the way of the Kings pulling off a repeat.

After the jump, we'll take a look at the matchups and who has the best chances of advancing out of the first round.

It's depressing that this will be the fourth year in a row that the Hurricanes failed to make the playoffs, but there are still plenty of exciting matchups to talk about in this year's first round. The shortened season was going to lead to a lot of interesting outcomes for this year's post-season and it certainly delivered on that promise, as three new teams from the Eastern Conference made the playoffs, a few of which not many expected. I'm sure that most would have laughed at you four months ago if you said that Montreal would win the Northeast after being the second worst team in the NHL last year. They would have done the same thing if you went onto predict that the Islanders would make the playoffs while the New Jersey Devils, last year's Eastern Conference champs, would be on the outside looking in. At least the Southleast Division lived up to its mantra of sending in only one team. Regardless, it looks like NHL fans are in for another exciting first round this year and there are a few series that could really go either way.

I'm sure that each of the fan blogs for these respective teams are working around the clock to break down their own series, but writing playoff predictions and previews is kind of a "tradition" for hockey bloggers, so I figured that I'll post mine here anyway. Most of people's playoff predictions are often based on picking whichever team is the "hottest" coming into the post-season or which team has the most experience on their roster. As most of you know, I have a different approach when it comes to predictions. I'm going to take a look at each series and see how each team matches up in terms of even strength play, how lucky they have gotten and how they have performed on special teams. Luck has played a huge role in a lot of teams making it in since this is a shortened year, so be prepared to see plenty of interesting matchups after the jump where I'll break down each series.

This season didn't go nearly as well as most Carolina fans thought it would. Instead of competing for a playoff spot, the Canes finished with a bottom-five record in the NHL and the only thing they have to hang onto is that they'll probably get a good building piece in the upcoming NHL Draft. The team was in a good position for awhile but they ended the season going 4-16-3 which effectively removed them from contention both in the Southeast and the playoff race. This team was far from perfect and struggles were going to happen, but I don't think anyone predicted a fall from grace like this happening. The popular explanation from most pundits are that the injury to Cam Ward sunk their season since the team went 10-19-3 without him, but there have been a lot of other different reasons drawn up, too. The Canes have been described as a team that is "soft," "fragile" with their biggest criticism being that they aren't "tough to play against" and that is ultimately why they aren't in the post-season.

I'm not doubting any of those claims since this team has a tendency to unravel once things started going wrong but I felt that there were other factors that contributed to this team falling apart down the stretch. Some of which they had control over and others they did not. There were going to be a lot of strange things happening in a shortened season (The Leafs are in the playoffs for starters), and things like injuries, luck and hot streaks were going to play a role in which teams made the post-season. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, they were on the negative end of just about all of these things which magnified the flaws they already had. Thus, they find themselves waiting for the Draft Lottery announcement on Monday instead of preparing for a playoff series.

As far as the Hurricanes collapse goes, there are five things in particular that I feel contributed to it.

The 2013 season mercifully came to a close for the Hurricanes last night and they ended things in painful fashion by getting blown out 8-3 by the Pittsburgh Penguins. It's somewhat of an appropriate ending for what has been an excruciating year for the Canes but at the very least, it clinched them a spot in the top-five of the NHL Entry Draft which they will hopefully put to good use this June. As bad as the final score was of last night's game, it's kind of hard for me to get hung up on the results because Carolina iced a roster that was in shambles. They actually dressed 18 skaters tonight but two of them played a combined nine seconds, so the team was predictably worn out by the third period, where they surrendered five goals.

Not only that, but I feel like Muller approached this game like a pre-season contest because we saw line combinations that we will likely never see again for a long time. Kevin Westgarth took a few shifts with the first line and scored his first two goals of the season on top of that, Jared Staal played top-six minutes in only his second NHL game while Jeff Skinner continued to center the third line with grinders on his wings. Jamie McBain & Marc-Andre Bergeron also played top-four minutes on defense and spent some of their ice time against Pittsburgh's top-six. It's highly doubtful that the Hurricanes will come out with this kind of look ever again, so there's really no point in freaking out over them getting blown out in basically a meaningless game. The only thing that happened last night which we will undoubtedly see again is Justin Faulk playing over 29 minutes.

I really don't have much to say about this game, so I'll just leave you guys with the numbers and move on with the off-season.

There have been a lot of things that have led to the Hurricanes collapse over the last month but one of the most popular explanations for it is Cam Ward's injury. Ever since Ward sprained his MCL, the Canes are 7-16-3 and their even strength save percentage has plummeted from an average .920 to .910. Bad goaltending can sink any team and the Hurricanes have experienced that first-hand this season with both Dan Ellis and Justin Peters going through rough patches in his relief. Finding a back-up for Cam Ward has never been an easy task and many thought the Hurricanes solved this problem this year by bringing in Dan Ellis during training camp. Now that he and Peters have struggled after being thrusted into a starting role, it has many people lobbying for the Canes to find a back-up goalie this summer.

As far next season goes, the who the Hurricanes have under contract aside from Ward is Justin Peters. Peters is on a one-way deal making $500,000 next year, so this makes the situation a little more difficult than usual. If he isn't on the team or traded by next year, he will have to pass through waivers and be paid an NHL salary in the AHL. This is something that Hurricanes might be reluctant to do because it's paying extra money to a player who won't even be on the team. However, has Peters done enough to make anyone confident about him being the back-up goalie next year?

Personally, I think he has been taking too much fo the blame for the Canes struggles since the defense has been very bad and the team has struggled to score on a lot of his starts, but his numbers are all over the place. Not only for this season, but for his entire career.

All goalies are random by nature, but Peters' lows have been very bad over his career. Like, below replacement level bad and one of those stretches came earlier this year. Peters also has a career save percentage of .900 over 46 starts and 1288 shots faced. This is still a very small sample size to judge a goalie on, but it's very hard to be confident in a back-up goalie with a career save percentage that's around replacement level. Ward has been able to stay healthy over most of his career, but he has taken on a ton of mileage in recent years and would benefit from a goalie who can spell him whenever he needs a night off. I'm not sure if Peters is that guy.

What about Dan Ellis, though? He has similar issues.

Ellis has also been prone to some extreme highs and lows over his career with his most recent low coming after he experienced a leg laceration that somehow kept him out for only two weeks. Prior to the injury, Ellis was playing very well and had a respectable save percentage of .918. Since then, he has a save percentage of .885 and has allowed three or more goals in all but one of six games and has been chased in two of them. Not the performance you want from a goaltender in the latter part of the season, but Ellis' overall numbers from the year really are not terrible.

A save percentage of .908 is about what you would expect from a back-up and his even strength save percentage is an average .920. Ellis' numbers from earlier in the year were unsustainable but his recent struggles appear to be more injury-related than anything else. I've heard some people say that he is at the end of his career, couldn't handle the pressure of being a #1 goalie and the hockey gods were "punishing" him for throwing the team under the bus after a couple of games. Seeing all of thiese claims come up is kind of funny to me because an injury seems more believable. He had his leg cut open by a skate blade on March 21st and returned only 13 days later. For reference, Cam ward suffered a similar injury in 2009 and was out for over a month. Given that piece of information, it seems plausible to me that Ellis rushed back from the injury and it affected his play.

In a full-season, Ellis would ahve to play about 20 games or so to give Ward enough nights off. He has been able to do this plenty of times over his career, but does he still have enough left in the tank to do it now? Possibly. Something you need to remember is that most back-up goaltenders are not of great quality and the most you would expect out of them is a save percentage of .910-.915. Sure, there have been outliers in recent history (Brian Elliott) and some teams like Vancouver have the luxury of two starting quality goaltenders but the league average save percentage of a back-up goalie is usually about .908 to .913. Ellis has been able to give his teams these results for most of his career.

Compare Ellis' save percentage with the yearly average of back-up goaltenders and his numbers have been roughly in line with that. The one exception being his 2010-11 season where he was the Tampa Bay Lightning's 1A/B goaltender and completely bottomed out. I also included Justin Peters' yearly save percentage here and his numbers are a bit more extreme from playing fewer games. I still think the book is still out on him since he hasn't played that much overall, but Ellis is more of a sure-thing. Unfortunately, Ellis is still only an average back-up at best but that might be all the Hurricanes need while Peters is more of a black-box who has been below replacement level in some years.

So the Hurricanes options on the roster right now for back-up goaltender are a veteran back-up with a low ceiling in Ellis and an inexperienced netminder in Peters who has bad more times than not. Some might say that they want neither, but compare them to the options in free agency and Ellis becomes slightly more appealing. Most teams tend to lock-up their goaltenders long-term, so there are never many great names available on the market and that is the case this year. The Hurricanes may only need a back-up, but even the options there are limited. In addition to Ellis, the back-up goaltenders who are free agents this coming summer include names like Chris Mason, Jose Theodore, Al Montoya, Mathieu Garon, Jason LaBarbera and Thomas Greiss. Greiss and LaBarbera are the only two who have a better save percentage than Ellis and the former has played in only six games. Ellis' career numbers are also favorable compared to them.

The Hurricanes options for a back-up goalie this summer are to either retain Ellis, try out the roller coaster that is Justin Peters in that position or make a push for one of the names on the list. I don't think they will have to pay much since the best player available is Jason LaBarbera, but there are going to be other teams looking for the same thing so that might drive his price up. They could always take a chance on a player like Greiss or Montoya for a low cost, too but they might as well just roll with Peters instead of signing an uncertain option. If Brian Elliott (and Brian Boucher) have taught us anything, it's that there is no such thing as a "sure" goaltender and their performance is incredibly random.

That being said, Ellis might be the safest option for Carolina next season and he should come at a cheap cost.  The only issue with re-signing him is finding out what to do with Peters since he is on a one-way deal. For whatever reason, he just hasn't worked out well in Carolina and I'm not sure if I trust him in a back-up role next year. Like I said earlier, Ward is going to need someone who can spell him for 20 games or so. Ellis has a history of being able to do that while Peters does not and has a scattered NHL record. Filling the back-up goaltender spot is thought to be easy in the NHL, but the Hurricanes have a couple of tough decisions to make this summer concerning this spot.

The Hurricanes nearly pulled the ultimate troll job last night as they were minutes away from upsetting the New York Rangers and putting their playoff chances in serious jeopardy. Why would this be a huge troll job on the Hurricanes part? Put yourself in the shoes of a Rangers fan. On Tuesday, you had a chance to seal up a playoff spot but ended up losing to a bad Florida Panthers taem despite outplaying them for the majority of the contest. Tonight, you have another chance to clinch and all you have to do is beat a Hurricanes team that has won a total of four games in the last month and had only 17 skaters dressed for tonight's game. If you're a New York fan you were probably thinking "this should be easy enough" and assume that this game would be a cakewalk. That isn't how things went down, though.

The Rangers nearly saw history repeat itself tonight since they vastly outplayed the Hurricanes for 2/3 of the game but found themselves down 3-2 in the dying seconds of the third period. The Hurricanes recorded only six shots through the final two periods but found themselves ahead because half of them beat Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist while Dan Ellis made 25+ saves over the same time. That's right, the same goaltender who the Rangers chased after two periods in these two team's last meeting was out-dueling the reigning Vezina trophy winner to potentially steal a game for the Hurricanes that they had no business being in with their playoff lives essentially on the line. Fortunately for the Rangers, the hockey gods weren't having any of this.

With about four minutes remaining in the third period, Carolina forward Tuomo Ruutu was whistled for a very soft tripping call to give the Rangers a late powerplay. The Hurricanes did a great job of preventing the Rangers from creating a lot of offense on this powerplay and it looked like this soft call wouldn't matter. That is, until Brad Richards let a long shot from the point go which bounced off the boards off Ellis' skate and into the net. All of the things that were going right for the Hurricanes over the previous 40 minutes completely reversed here, as the Rangers got an incredibly lucky goal off a penalty that should have never been called. This didn't end there, though as the Hurricanes started off the overtime period well, controlled play but could not get anything past Henrik Lundqvitst. After the Canes ran out of the gas, the Rangers got a turn to set up a play and scored on basically their first foray into the Carolina zone. This was another sort of "lucky" goal since Ryan Callahan was able to catch Ellis out of position and beat him shortside to clinch a playoff birth for the Rangers.

What was a special night for the Staal family with young Jared making his debut ended up being an even more special night for the Rangers, as they will be the ones whose season continues over these next couple of months while the Hurricanes had only game remaining on their schedule before they hit the links. The Rangers got the help of a gift penalty call and a lucky goal, but their quality of play was superior to Carolina's for most of this game and they deserved this win. Good teams can create their own bounces and the Rangers were long overdue for one after how their last couple of games have gone. The Hurricanes nearly got away with one here, but like I said earlier, the hockey gods didn't allow that to happen.

Rookie seasons like the one Jeff Skinner had come around once every so often. As an 18 year old, he had a 31-goal season, recorded 61 points and produced at an astounding rate of 2.49 points per 60 minutes during 5-on-5 play. A rookie putting up those kind of numbers is rare and it's unheard of for an 18-year old to have that kind of year. Having a rookie season like this will do wonders for your expectations and Skinner's were off the charts after this season. He was known as an elite goal-scorer when he was drafted and after potting 31 in his rookie season, it led you to believe that he could do the same in the NHL and possibly do more in future seasons. Things haven't quite gone this way, though.

After his terrific rookie season, Skinner scored 20 goals and had 44 points in 64 games his sophomore season and right now, he has only 13 goals and 23 points over 40 games. This scoring pace would give him only 26 goals and 47 points in a full 82-game season, which is probably lower than what many people had expected from him after his great rookie season. His scoring rate has also plummeted to 1.29 points per 60 minutes this year after scoring over two points per 60 minutes in his first two seasons. This along with his -20 rating has a lot of fans wondering what has gone wrong with Skinner's development and what he is doing differently from his rookie season. 

Seeing Skinner's point totals fall off is frustrating because he has actually made a lot of improvements in his game from his rookie season, despite what some want you to believe.

Two games in a row now the Hurricanes have took home two points despite not playing their best hockey and it might be coming at the worst time of the season. If this were a month ago and the Canes still had a shot at the playoffs, then I'm sure most would be ecstatic about the team picking up two wins in a row even if they didn't "deserve" them. Now that they are out of the playoffs and the only thing at stake is draft position, this win doesn't really hold a lot of value to most fans. Not that tasting victory after doing nothing but losing for an entire month doesn't feel good, but when your team gets outplayed for 65 minutes, blows a third period lead and wins in the shootout, it doesn't feel as good as most wins do. Like I said, it's the second game in a row that they've been outplayed in a winning result when all the Canes are playing for is pride. From my experience, winning is the only way to get your confidence back up, so these wins mean a lot to the team but it's obviously too little too late and Carolina will need to play better in future games than they've had in the last three.

I kind of wrote off the Tampa Bay game since it was the second night of a back-to-back and the Canes had a 3-0 lead in the first period, but they were simply outplayed by the Islanders last night and were able to get two points thanks to Dan Ellis and a couple of fluky goals. Basically everything that was going wrong for the Canes over the last month has dramatically shifted over the last two games. It would have been nice if this happened sooner but there's nothing we can do about it now, sadly.

If you're a Carolina fan still itching for some live hockey then you are in luck because the Charlotte Checkers will be playing in the AHL playoffs. It will be the second time in three years that they have qualified for the post-season and the first time that they have earned home-ice advantage in a series since moving to Charlotte. Those who followed the Checkers during the lockout know that the team was brewing something special with how well they played for the first half of the season. They have managed to continue this success even after losing so many players to injuries, NHL graduation and other means. The players they've lost include their top defense pairing, both starting goaltenders and a few of their top scorers. Head Coach and GM Jeff Daniels has managed to get it done, though and lead the Checkers to the playoffs even with all of the roster changes.

Their first round opponent will be a familiar foe in the Oklahoma City Barons, who were divisional rivals with the Checkers in the South Division this year. The Checkers were 4-4-0 head-to-head against the Barons this year but were outscored 28-25 in those eight games. They were also on the receiving end of a couple of ugly losses to Oklahoma City, one of which coming by a score of 7-4 back in November. Charlotte has had their share of success against OKC this year, as well including a 7-0 win over them on the road, so this matchup seems to be pretty even going by this. 

That being said, it's tough to go by what these two teams did against each other during the season series because their rosters are completely different from what they were in November and January, which was when most of their head-to-head games took place. This is especially true for Oklahoma City, who may have benefitted from the lockout more than any other AHL club. They are the minor league affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers and many of their top young talents played for the Barons during the lockout. Every AHL club had this benefit but the Barons had top-six caliber players such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall & Jordan Ebere playing for them so that kind of gave them a leg up on the competition. Their roster obviously looks a lot different now that the NHL is in full-swing and the Barons have managed to overcome similar roadblocks as the Checkers to make the post-season.

After the jump, we'll talk about how the two teams current rosters match up and who has the advantage.